Delay. Fulfillment TBA. International backers responsible for their taxes.

No more estimates. The project and its fulfillment will be done, when it's done. I have too much respect for you backers, your support and your high expectations of Kingdom Death: Monster to fall short of any future estimates.

The hard plastic manufacturing process is taking much longer then I anticipated. In order for any individual miniature to reach my approval, the time and investment of raw work hours is staggering. It's needs to be done right, simple as that.

My full commitment remains with you backers. As promised, I have directed the extra time gained from the longer manufacturing process back into the project. As opposed to perhaps the wiser business move of starting something new with the team.
You believed in Kingdom Death: Monster and me, and so I will in turn, believe in you, your patience and your understanding. Resources earned from our separate resin sales, are now being invested to expand the expansions and to play test them to a brilliant polish. That is my proof of commitment.

From now on, I will simply share the facts of where we are with hard plastic production along with what we have improved, upgraded or added to the expansions.

International Fulfillment

I continue to research and seek a solution / partner that will ease the burden for international backers. However, please do not be mistaken, I never promised to find or open an international warehouse. I did however, promise to look into solutions and I still continue to do so. Thus far, we have not found any options that are a fiscal possibility. This project is simply too large, has too many unique items and is too heavy. We are a small team making our dream project come true. Not a heavy-weight international logistics company. Shipwire, from all personal user cases we have examined, is not a solution I am currently confident using.

Here is our official statement:

Each individual backer is responsible for any and all customs, duties, taxes, Vat and additional fee's they may or may not incur. We must mark packages consistently with domestic and / or international law. Doing otherwise would jeopardize both the project and your rewards. Adam Poots Games, LLC will act in the accordance of the law.

Packages will be marked to reflect pledges, not the final retail cost of the rewards inside.

Core Game Upgrades

The core game is off to print. Contracts have been signed and we are running 10,000 copies. It is truly a "monster". With over 1,000 game cards and a 220+ page rulebook. The price to to produce each unit... is intense.
Since the kickstarter campaign ended, we have added a staggering amount of content.

Looking at this, I realize that I must be truly insane. I added so much content to this game! Compared to what was promised and where we are now, its intense Ahhhh! Future project creators be warned, this is what happens when you give things your all.

Hard Plastic Production

Production is a multi stage process. After each miniature or bit is sculpted it is handed off for a time consuming optimization process to split the model for hard plastic production and remove all of the draft angles. Once this is approved the model goes into layout, where it is arranged on a sprue for optimal passage of plastic to ensure a minimal amount of shrinkage and mold lines. Once that is approved it moves onto a machine where the tool (the mold) is cut into a solid block of metal. Depending on the detail level and the number of parts, this can take a significant amount of time.

Armor Kit Update

We solved the issue and have reached the kit compatibility level the project requires. There was a very simple miscommunication that resulted in every single male armor kit having sockets that were not compatible and thus every male armor kit had to be re-adjusted! I have two kits ready to share with everyone today. I'll just say that i've really enjoyed working with these so far. We are going to label the multipart bits

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Hard Plastic Approved for Production

The Stalker is tooled up in hard plastic and ready to hide in the light until you least suspect it! The cuts on it are the most clever yet and offer a pretty seamless build.
I really adore this fishy / planty jerk!

The Lion Knight & Court is also stellar. The hard plastic claws are so durable and are armor kit compatible. There is also a smaller set of claws on the set, along with heads with holy land masks to add to your survivors.

Aya & Paul
Two of our oldest miniatures and still my favorite. I am happy to report their extra bits are armor kit compatible!
Adam & Anna come with extra armor kit compatible bits! Candy was created so her cloth skirt was optional and the Twilight Knight includes the original sword, before the twilight sword was realized and offically sculpted.as an extra option. (This was initially only included with the first batch of resin collectors editions. i'll photograph it later my brain is melting from preparing so much content! sorry! )

Armor Kit System

When I started the project, long before there was even a kickstarter. The far off dream was always to have a really cool system of compatible bits on a hard plastic frame. I could imagine myself holding it up and sort of window shopping, before i snipped off bits to create a character for myself. Having two of the kits on my desk, along with the little compatible parts we've snuck into many of the expansions and promos makes it all feel so "real." I admit, it. I totally had a moment.

I can also state that matching a miniature to in game gear is satisfying with a strange twinge of addiction.

The Lion Knight is awesome and all, but due to a happy accident at the factory, the extra heads on the sprue actually fit his body as do the all of the armor kit compatible weapons. Here is a pretty creepy looking survivor rocking a pair of flower swords!

So yeah, now everyone here is pushing me to start a skirmish game of some sort so we can play with hoards of survivors that have started to take over all clean surfaces areas in the studio.

Expanded Expansions

The Initial Pass on all expansions was complete in march. After realizing that due to the extended hard plastic production process there was more time, we reopened them all to improve their gameplay value and longevity. More art, more gear, more content, more testing.

A great example of this, is the Slenderman. Originally the intent was to create a very simple expansion that added a more challenging nemesis monster late in the campaign. There was only one reward and overall the content interacted with the game in a very limited way.

We decided to go in and add a lot more, including a light forging story event that lets you craft a variety of gear from the light sensitive dark water thats earned from defeating a slender man. AND the Gloom Man secret fighting art which you can work towards earning by adding the expansion to your campaign.

*Please note, the follow image DOES NOT show everything from the expansion. That would be way too "spoilery" for me.

Even after its upgrade, the Slender Man is still the smallest of all the monster expansions.

The Dung Beetle Knight (my personal favorite) is another expansion that has received the royal upgrade treatment. Since putting this update together has taken me… waaay too long, I will have to show that off next time!

Kings of Death

The Kings of Death resin collectors trunks have been packed. We decided to hold of on sending them just yet, as we hope a few more of the lagging resin items will arrive by the end of july.

Resin Beta

Resin beta has also been delayed a bit. We hired another freelance full time playtester (bringing us up to 4) for our march up to hitting the print deadline. His perspective excels in the "learning / teaching" department and we decided to hold off on this briefly.

Now the plan is to provide something more focused that will give us advanced insight so we can create videos and other post launch learning aids for new players. Don't be mistaken The game is very playable, every playtest group has managed to be up and actually playing within 45 mins without any outside aid. But, I now that personally it helps me to watch vidoes while also have the ruleboook, so we are planning to support those gamers too.

Retail Price Adjustment

The core game, now that we have the final specs. Is simply too costly for us to retail it at the originally intended price of $100. It saddens me, but we have to raise the price of the Core Game to $250. It will still include all of the paper goods listed above, along with the all the miniatures (all 17 sprue's worth!)
Packages will be marked to reflect pledges, not the final retail cost of the rewards inside.

Pledge Manager

The pledge manager will be opened tomorrow. If you have any issues please submit a ticket so we can track it and make sure it gets resolved. We get a lot of emails on a lot of different channels. By moving everything to one place it will ensure you are responded to. Be as descriptive and polite as possible, thank you.

support@kingdomdeath.zendesk.com

Other Stuff!

Perhaps most importantly, we have started our first male pinup project! It is very unfamiliar ground for me and it might take a while to see a final miniature, but I do have some art to share now!

We also grabbed a makerbot for studio learning and use. It certainly can't print miniatures, but it can very roughly print some other larger things!

A Pinup Twilight Knight stands next to a very large print of the Halloween Pinup Twilight Knight that is planned for release on um... Halloween! Well a miniature version is, this big one is just for fun.

I also created a quick storage box for all of the core games gear cards. The cards and our temporary organizers have been pretty well beaten from play testing, but maybe once the game is out, I'll make the files for this available for other people to print and modify for their own storage.

From the Heart

I can't thank you all enough for this opportunity. I am still incredibly humbled by all of this, it still seems pretty insane! I know sometimes I come across as firm and from a personal level, I do apologize. I've learned that I must be a responsible project creator and boss which can lead to some very difficult challenges.

However, I must confess, the joy of overcoming these challenges and being able to share the fruits of that labor with all of you has been like nothing else. And I must again, thank you for it.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly at adam.poots at kingdomdeath.com. I will respond as quickly as I can, but please understand that not only do I get a lot of messages, I am also managing the project so it can get a little busy!

Kingdom Death: Monster is my dream game. And the only true way I can thank you for sharing that dream, is to ensure that everything is the best it can be. We will finish. You will get your rewards.

I will continue to personally available, ready to face any challenges or concerns head on.

Have we heard anything new since July? I am impressed with the work on this game, but am getting the feeling that the scope creep on the project is pushing the deadlines out over and over again. Is there a targeted date for release at all yet?

@Motor if you read Adam's comments he is waiting on a package from China and will post an update once he gets it. Also the last week of August and all of September will be KDM all the time at the factory in China.

How bout we look at the webstore and see the first edition people of the Sun and looik at the Miko priestess there, which is in the Sunstalker expansion. Oh look, there's the actual model which we've not seen before in the resin with enough broad detail that the hard plastic should like nigh identical. That's a pretty subtle update right there, you just have to be paying attention is all. :)

Also, this update is awesome, I just noticed the Plummery, i was all...what has feathers...the phoenix, sweet! :p So we need a Plummery for the Phoenix likely. That we're seeing the dung beetle expansion next is a big plus for me, that's the model that made me go nuts and commit in the first place and I'm not disappointed at all!

@ Kingdom Death I notice one of the Rawhide poses is a crouching/kneeling one. Never really been a big fan of minis that arn't standing up,always though they look a bit odd on 'the battlefield' like they are shuffling around lol so means I will need two of these kits so that I can have two female standing up figures. Could you let us know if any of the other Armour kits include crouching/kneeling figures, so I know if I need any extra armour kits thanks

@Michael H Adam has said several times that he is most worried about the KS and not retail later. Also for the price of 4 regular KD minis I can buy an entire 2 player battle box for most war games. KD has never been about being cheap but about being the best. I am sure the price might hinder some but for the rest it will be seen as an investment to an awesome game.

Also one can never have 2 many parts and the minis wrre always meant to be glued together and if you clear coat properly tou wont have issues with chipping.

While I am always happy with getting more for my money, in his instance it seems like a little too much. A jump from $100 to $250 will make it more difficult for people who are interested to get into the game, especially when for that price they could pick up 5-10 other board games.
Then there is trying to figure out what to do with all the contents! 1000 cards is a LOT OF CARDS which will make this a heavy game to cart around. I see myself carrying this in and out of my local game stores to play, and not the mention the fact that I obsessively sleeve all of my cards to protect them. Then there are the pieces. 38 heads just for the unarmored kit? At least this does not appear to replicate across all the sprues, but that is a lot of heads! I'll have to pick up storage organizers just to keep track of the parts. The customizability of the kits is also cool, but for anyone who might have been thinking of painting these that will be a nightmare, unless we glue the parts together. Handing those small pieces is going to wear the paint down quick.
I guess I was expecting less, more along the lines of a more manageable number of pieces than anything else. Like four complete models for unarmored survivors, four complete models for rawhide, four complete models for fur armor, and nothing spare parts leftover. I feel that with any other game a lot of the extra would simply have been placed in an expansion for those that want more to bring down the initial price so that it is easier for new players to pick up the system.
I'm just hoping you aren't going too overboard with all the excitement of launching this product, I would hate to see this bite you in the butt with as amazing as the models are and with how much I love the concept of the system. At least I got in when the game was $100, right?

Can't wait! I'd also like to ask, after everyone gets their 2 foot by 1 foot long boxes, and we've gotten some time with it, I may want to order some of the expansions. Namely the Flower Knight, Dungbeetle Knight, Lion Knight, and Slenderman. Can we be assured that you will still be offering these expansions for at least a few months post-delivery? Maybe treat myself to them for xmas. ;3

On the topic of spares: Do you think that getting additional base plates is a must? I am getting two games and most of the extensions. I became a backer for the setting and gameplay and have next to no experience with miniatures. Thanks.

I was thinking, I imaging that many will play this game for years to come. IIRC one update said that individual armor kits wont be for sale after the kickstarter. But I guess that many dont want to pay for a full expansion or $250 for the base game just to get new armor kits. Just food for thought.